Poūkahangatus: Poems by Tayi Tibble REVIEW

Poūkahangatus: Poems

by Tayi Tibble

Synopsis

The American debut of an acclaimed young poet as she explores her identity as a twenty-first-century Indigenous woman.

Intimate, moving, virtuosic, and hilarious, Tayi Tibble is one of the most exciting new voices in poetry today. In Poūkahangatus (pronounced "Pocahontas"), her debut volume, Tibble challenges a dazzling array of mythologies--Greek, Māori, feminist, kiwi--peeling them apart, respinning them in modern terms. Her poems move from rhythmic discussions of the Kardashians, sugar daddies, and Twilight to exquisite renderings of the natural world and precise emotions ("The lump in her throat swelled like a sea that threatened to take him from her, and she had to swallow hard"). Tibble is also a master narrator of teenage womanhood, its exhilarating highs and devastating lows; her high-camp aesthetics correlate to the overflowing beauty, irony, and ruination of her surroundings.

Poem by poem, Tibble carves out a bold new way of engaging history without merely telling it, of straddling modernity and ancestry, desire and exploitation: a truly twenty-first-century negative capability. These are warm, provocative, and profoundly original poems, written by a woman for whom diving into the wreck means taking on new assumptions--namely, that it is not radical to write from a world in which the effects of colonization, land, work, and gender are obviously connected. Along the way, Tibble scrutinizes perception and how she as a Māori woman fits into trends, stereotypes, and popular culture. With language that is at once colorful, passionate, and laugh-out-loud funny, Poūkahangatus is the work of one of our most daring new poets.

Expected Publication: July 26, 2022

Review

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Poūkahangatus is the debute poetry collection by Tayi Tibble. I just have to take a second and and recognize how incredibly stunning that cover is! The second I saw it I just had to read this book.

I can't say I connected to every poem in hate. I also can't say I enjoyed every poem in here, but the ones I enjoyed made this entire collection worth reading. I loved being able to read a poetry collection by a young indigenous woman getting a glimpse into her perspective of the world.

My favorite poem in this collection is "Our Nan Lets Us Smoke Inside". It brought back memories of smoking and playing cards with my own nan (yes, I was legal age). The nostalgia I felt reading this poem was just wonderful.

Poūkahangatus is a very small book coming in at only 96 pages. So if you're looking for just a quick dip into someone else's perspective through poetry than this could potentially be a great option for you.